Memorial Quilt – Gloves and Handkerchiefs

In April of 2016 my mother passed away, and two weeks later her next younger sister followed her. Last fall my cousin called and asked me if I would make a quilt from her mother’s gloves and handkerchiefs. Any size, any time. I was very fond of my Aunt, and my cousin, so I said, “sure!”, thinking it would be wall size and not take very long.

I thought about it for six months. Did some searches. Thought some more. Then started laying the gloves and handkerchiefs out in different patterns. You see above what I came up with! Thanks to inspiration from Susan Lenz’s Handed Down wall hanging, and design assistance from my husband. It’s 52″ x 65″ – almost twin size, and it took much longer than I had anticipated, but I’m very happy with it!

This is what I did: Layered a backing, batting, and sheet then placed the handkerchiefs on the sheet. Basted it all together and quilted. Transferred photos to fabric using T-shirt transfer material. Laid out the gloves and photos and pinned them down. Made two test pieces to decide on how to attach the gloves and photos. Fused the photos, and hand stitched the gloves and tatting around each photo. Bound the quilt.

What I’d do differently if I ever do this again: Not use upholstery grade fabric for the backing – it was way too thick and precluded machine stitching the gloves and lace. Make it smaller, max of 24″x24″.

2 responses to “Memorial Quilt – Gloves and Handkerchiefs”

What a beautiful treasury of memories for Lydia, and a real testament to the ongoing Lewis line of sew-ers!! Are there any examples of Tabor stitchery in your archives (let’s trace back another generation!)?? You have wonderful creative skills, Cathy!